Friday’s College Baseball Scoreboard & Wrapup (5/25/12)

Friday had some appearance of more “normalcy” … but at the end of the day, it was more of the same upheavel from the previous couple days – as conference tournament seeding remained essentially a 50-50 proposition, with lower seeds winning nearly half of the games (28-30; 48%) among 21 conference tournaments that were being contested with automatic NCAA bids on the line. By our count, 11 different top seeds now have failed to reach their conference tournament final (listed below). front-page photo courtesy of Furman

Over the past three days (May 23-25), lower-seeded teams have held a slight edge – 92-90 (50.5%) – when playing vs. higher-seeded/ranked teams, in conference tournament games (and a sprinkling of non-tournament games) with potential bearing on the NCAA field. When factoring in a limited schedule from Tuesday, the higher seeds/favorites have a slight 103-100 margin in games played from May 22-25.

There were seven games on Friday involving regular-season series that are closing play in the Pac-12, Big West and WCC (favorites won four, with three upsets). Combined with the conference tournaments, that gives the favorites a slight edge (34-31) for Friday’s final won-loss ledger when tracking significant games.

Scroll down for more summary notes and highlights, along with all of Friday’s results and indications included on the status of various teams in their tournament brackets (a rundown from the previous three days also is included at the bottom of this page).

Friday’s finals resulted in seven top seeds failing to reach their conference tournament finals:
• Florida State (ACC) fell out of the running to win its pool when 8-seed Georgia Tech routed (4) Virginia, 17-5 in 7 inn. (GT earlier had defeated FSU) and the ‘Noles ended up losing anyway to (5) Clemson, 9-7.
• LSU was eliminated from the SEC, following a second loss at the tournament vs. (7) Mississppi State, 4-3 in 10 innings.
• Appalachian State went out in the Southern Conference tournament, after a 13-4 loss to 8-seed Furman.
• New Mexico State went 0-2 in the WAC, following a 15-12 loss to (6) Louisiana Tech.
• BIG EAST favorite Louisville lost a pair of games on Friday: 4-1 vs. (5) Connecticut and 6-2 vs. (4) South Florida
• Sam Houston State won an elimination game in the Southland but then lost to (4) Texas Arlington, 7-1.
• St. Louis initially fought off elimination in the Atlantic-10 but then lost 3-2 to (5) Richmond.

Four top seeds already had been eliminated from reaching their conference tournament finals: Rice in Conference USA (could not win its pool) … Indiana State in the Missouri Valley (went 0-2) … Florida Atlantic in the Sun Belt (could not win its pool) … and Jackson State in the SWAC (went out early a week ago, in that tournament).

In addition to the eight losses referenced above (two by Louisville), there were two other #1 seeds that lost on Friday: FAU in a 5-4, 10-inn. Sun Belt game vs. (4) South Alabama (again, FAU already was out of the running it its pool) … and Oral Roberts, which lost a 4-3, 10-inning game vs. (3) North Dakota State in the Summit League.

Two conferences saw both their top seed and 2-seed get upset on Friday: the Southland (Southeastern Louisiana lost 4-3 to 6-seed Stephen F. Austin) … and the Sun Belt (Arkansas State was a 6-3 loser vs. Troy, also a 6-seed).

Friday’s 28 wins by the lower seeds included all three games in the BIG EAST (also 7-seed Notre Dame eliminating 3-seed Seton Hall, 4-3) and all three in the Sun Belt (also 7-seed Middle Tennessee’s 11-6 win over 3-seed FIU). Three of the four Friday games in the Southland were won by lower seeds (also SFA’s 9-7 win vs. 3-seed Texas State) and there were five conferences with two lower-seed wins on Friday: ACC, SEC, CUSA, WAC and A-10.

Among Friday’s 21 conference tournaments that were playing in quest of an NCAA automatic berth, four produced wins by all of the higher seeds: the Atlantic Sun (3/3), the Mountain West (2/2), the Big South (2/2) and the Metro Atlantic/MAAC (2/2).

Three noteworthy 2-seeds were eliminated from contending for their conference tournaments on Friday, as South Carolina lost a 3-2 game to SEC 3-seed Florida … Texas A&M was a 5-3 loser vs. 7-seed Kansas in the Big 12 … and Central Florida fell out of the running in its pool in the CUSA (thanks to a second upset by 7-seed UAB, which had beaten UCF a day earlier.

In Friday’s Pac-12 rivalry series openers, Oregon State’s 7-3 win over visiting Oregon coupled with Arizona’s 1-0 home win over Arizona State leaves the Ducks and Wildcats tied atop the conference standings, one game ahead of UCLA (a 3-1 winner over USC). Stanford had a chance to be one game back as well, but the Cardinal lost a “lets-play-two” marathon vs. Cal, 5-4 in 18 innings.

Pepperdine shut out San Diego, 4-0, to open the series that will decide the WCC title and NCAA automatic bid. Long Beach State won by the same score at Long Beach State, clinching a share of the Big West title for the Titans – but if Long Beach wins the final two games, LBSU would get the league’s NCAA bid (CSF then would be an at-large entrant).

• Georgia Tech’s 17-5 win over Virginia is the most lopsided win by an 8-seed in ACC Tournament history. A day earlier, GT became only the third ACC 8-seed ever to beat a 1-seed (FSU).

• Georgia Tech, Clemson and Virginia all still could win their ACC pool, while Miami and NC State still are in the running from the other 4-team group. The CUSA pool winners are set (Memphis an UAB) while Louisiana-Monroe already had clinched its Sun Belt pool (the other still is TBA).

• Top seed Stony Brook won the America East title, closing with a 13-6 win over 4-seed Maine.

• Stanford (18) and California (17) combined to leave 35 runners on base (20 in extra-innings) during that 18-inning win by the Bears.

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FRIDAY’S KEY GAMES (schedule & results; May 25, 2012)
(sorted based on RPI for each conference, per WarrenNolan.com)